Gülen network not terrorist organisation, EU anti-terror chief says

The European Union does not share Turkey's view that the network of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen is a terrorist organisation and would need to see "substantive" evidence to change its stance, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator told Reuters in an interview published Thursday.

"As for FETÖ, we don't see it as a terrorist organisation, and I don't believe the EU is likely to change its position soon," Gilles de Kerchove said, using the Turkish government's acronym for Gülen's network.

"You need not only circumstantial evidence - like just downloading an app - but concrete substantive data which shows that they were involved...," he also told Reuters.

CIA-linked Fethullah Gülen was once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Islamist-rooted AKP party. Germany's BND spy agency has said it is not convinced that Gülen was behind the failed coup, in which rogue soldiers used tanks and helicopters to attack Turkey's parliament and other key targets.

Turkey has also sought, so far unsuccessfully, Gülen's extradition from the United States.